I've been asked to give a talk ... (and you know me, I LOVE to talk! )

In the past I've done a bit of work with the Intersex Society of North America (isna), the UK association is good but the isna tend to get the best research and have a very forward approach to things which I like.

Anyway, I've been asked if I'd like to give a talk about intersexuality while I'm in America. I stress that this is not an academic talk, my academic background has nothing to do with intersex issues, this is purely a general talk about the condition/situation that intersexed people find themselves with/in.

I think I've only been asked because I have the distinguished and somewhat infamous label within the community of being a 'herm with attitude'!

So, I'm wondering what people would like to know if they attended such a talk. It's aimed at university students and any other interested parties who want to come along. It won't only be me but I'm doing the 'intersex 101' talk! I have about an hour. I can use pictures, slides, audio, video etc. or I could just talk.

It's difficult in a way because I'm used to talking about this to people who have some idea what I'm talking about. Here, I'm going to introduce the subject upon the unsuspecting public!

If you were to attend such a talk, what sort of things would you like to find out?

In order to make this talk accessible to all, here are some things I'm wondering about :

[1] What do people understand by the term intersex (what do you think it means?) - I'm not talking about dictionary definitions, I'd love to hear people's own take on this.

[2] Would you like to know more about the genetic background of intersex?

[3] Would seeing pictures help you to understand and, if so, what sort of pictures? (I don't just mean genital pictures, I'm talking about facial images, pictures to demonstrate the genetics etc.)

[4] Are you more interested in the biological/genetic lives of intersexed people or the social/interpersonal lives of intersexed people?

[5] What kind of things would you like to know if you attended such a talk?

[6] Should I do a Q&A bit at the end?

Thank you for any input. Once I've written it and given the talk, I'll post it if anyone's interested.

1) someone who is neither born male or female, reguarding what genitials they are born with...or something along the lines of...

2)yes i would

3)Pictures would be great, i would rather see pictures of faces..i think it would help people see the person, rather than pictures of gentials-which i actually dont think needs to be seen for this....

4)i would like to hear about the social aspect of peoples lives, how they deal with being differnt, how the world looks upon them, how they are treated, how they feel about themselves..., relationships....

5)I would like to hear personal stories, the sad times and happy times...

6) not sure let me think some more about that.....

A standard “academic hour” talk of 50 minutes (less time for introduction and any questions), doesn’t allow for nearly as much content as you would like to include, but I do have some suggestions from my recent presentations on the voluntary eunuch community.

1) Begin with a VERY brief description of the falsity of the standard polar dichotomy of “male” vs. “female”. Sex and gender are vastly more complex than just the two pigeon-holes. Chromosomal sex is more than just XX and XY. There are XO, XXY, XYY, etc. as alternatives. The external plumbing system that’s used for initial determination has a RANGE between clearly male and clearly female with about one in 4,000 indeterminate from a simple physical examination. The internal plumbing system can also be quite diverse. What’s inside the head ranges across various spectra – what gender one “is” need not match the plumbing system. What sort one is sexually attracted to, etc. There are enough different scales to measure sex and gender that there are more possible combinations than humans who have ever lived! Ask the audience to look around and realize that no two people in the room need be the same sex/gender. Remind the audience that “intersex” is yet another pigeon-hole for some who don’t fit the standard polar pair. It also includes a wide variety.

2) I have found photographs to be very useful. Before making my first poster presentation on voluntary eunuchs to the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, I asked several of the people here if I might use their photographs. Everyone I asked agreed. Photographs of 10 eunuchs were scattered across the poster, among all of the graphs and charts. They drew immediate attention from those attending the session. The professional sexologists were drawn to photos of Plix and Thefraj – both handsome young folk. Riverwind looks like a Santa Claus in training. Several commented that Sag111 looked like a traditional Hollywood leading man – strikingly handsome and debonaire. Talula, hoisting a beer stein, looked like the perfect drinking buddy. (He is, by the way.) The photos humanized the group.

3) Speaking to a non-professional audience, I would probably spend more time on the social/interpersonal lives of the intersexed than on the biological/genetic. Most would probably only need to know that there is a biological/genetic component. What would matter more to them are public presentation and social interaction.

4) I would certanly try to leave time for some questions at the end, but not too much time that eats into your time to speak. If the room is empty after your talk so that those interested can stay around to ask questions, the “official” question time can be only enough for about two or three questions. It shouldn’t be too much longer than that even if everyone needs to be chased out for whoever gets the room next.

Hi TC, thank you so much for replying to me and for taking the time to think through what you'd like to hear at such talk, I'm grateful to you. I also think that photos of faces and some personalisation would be good. I think that makes it more real for people and less of a biological 'condition'. If you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Hi Jesus, thank you for your reponse. It's very helpful, I definitely intend to include genetics but, in the past, I've discovered that one has to be fairly careful because people lose interest fairly quickly if things get too technical. I shall definitely be including a chat about mosaic genetics as so many people have no idea that such a thing exists (I've even had conversations with geneticists who manage to avoid any mention of mosaics!)

For anyone who doesn't know what mosaic genetics are, it is a genetic situation whereby someone is born with some cells which contain XX chromosones and others which contain XY (I have mosaic genetics myself!). It's genetically interesting because the cells are entirely separate and there is no XXY (or any computation thereof) involved, it is a situation where someone is born with entirely split genetics.

I had also thought of including a small bit about medical decisions, possibly based on my own experiences (rather than exposing anyone else), talking about decisions made at birth followed by what happens at puberty which often shows that medical/surgical decisions taken at birth have been horribly wrong. Fortunately, this happens much less nowadays as medics tend to try to wait before committing to a decision but it DOES still happen.

There are truly terrible statistics about intersexed people committing suicide based on the fact that a wrong decision has been taken by medics at birth. I was almost one of those statistics myself if I'm honest and I think it's worthy of some discussion and so I shall mention it.

In a way I'm a bit of a fool, I expose myself and talk about it because I don't see why I should be ashamed of it. Many other people choose to remain quiet and I don't blame them one iota, I KNOW why they do that.

On the other hand, if no-one talks about it then how can anything move forward?

On a slightly different subject, there has been some discussion for a while now about a documentary on intersex issues. A production company wants to make the doc for a Channel Four strand. I've said no a couple of times (probably because I'm a bit of a coward) but, after seeing Roger on the 'Eunuchs' documentary it's rather shamed me. I'm currently re-considering it! (So thanks are owed to TheFraj for making me think about it again.)

dingbat i think they are truly great ideas

Including medical decisions taken at birth, is a brilliant idea you are so brave for doing this, we all know-its hard being differnt in this world....

Id like to see you on tv but no chance in hell would they get me to appear on any program!!!!!!!! not unless they wanted me to be a moviestar, and i dont really wanna be a moviestar !!!